Category Archives: Land Use

Bethlehem sure does have some nutty old park rules, but luckily for people who like fun Councilwoman Karen Dolan’s plans to revamp them would go a long way toward correcting some of this silliness. Especially the open container component. It’s … More after the jump →

This is more like it. Rob McCord’s 10% severance tax is twice what Allyson Schwartz proposed, and is much more in line with what the “Saudi Arabia” of natural gas should be charging. The McCord campaign estimates that the new levy would … More after the jump →

Downtown businesses used to know this, but when you only have a limited amount of space in your core downtown, you need high parking turnover at curb spaces to get enough people through the door. Most people who come into your … More after the jump →

A few comments on this post noted that school district consolidation at the county level wouldn’t do anything for Philadelphia, and that’s true. Philly already has a countywide school district. But this gets at the political problem with having varied … More after the jump →

I write about land use politics a lot (less so here now that I’m blogging here now) and it’s a fun emerging issue in Democratic politics that progressives should strive to know more about. I’ll co-sign on this reading list from … More after the jump →

Sandy Smith reads my long-form piece at Forefront on autonomous cars: As Jon Geeting notes in a Next City “Forefront” feature story, driverless – or more accurately, self-driving – cars offer “the chance to dramatically reshape the relationship between public space and the … More after the jump →

The program that Allyson Schwartz traded for a vote for food stamp cuts doesn’t actually do what it purports to do – get lower-income people to buy and eat healthier foods – but I do want to stick up for … More after the jump →

(image courtesy of Randy Simes) Click to embiggen, and you’ll see that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh’s transit funding is excessively dependent on both state funding and fares. For political-geographic reasons, our transit authorities will never receive generous funding from the state. … More after the jump →